Drawer.



No. 747,685. PATBNTED DEC. 22, 1903.

'W. H. GOYE. DRAWER;

APPLIOATION I'ILED.JULY a1, 1901. no MODEL.

WITNESSES //v VENYTOI? M .4QM ifikva/Zlaje m: NORRIS PETERS co,Pubro-Lwnu. WASHINGTON, 04 c4 UNITED STATES PatentedDecember 22, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM H. OOYE, OF STEVENS POINT, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOR TO WILLIAM H.COYE AND VVAITE B. BUCKINGHAM, OF STEVENS POINT, WISCONSIN.

DRAWER.

SPECIFICATION forming; part of Letters Patent No. 747,685, datedDecember 22, 1903;

Application filed July 3 l, l 901.

T ctZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. (love, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Stevens Point, in the county of Portage and 5 State ofWisconsin, have invented new and useful Improvements in Drawers, ofwhich the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription.

My invention relates to improvements in the construction of drawers usedin various articles of furniture.

Prior to my invention it was customary to make the bottom and the wallsof a drawer each in asingle piece of wood, usually of soft wood, andto'unite the parts by mortise or tongue-and-groove joints. It has alsobeen proposed to make the side drawer-walls with integral enlargementsaffording lateral 0&- sets on the outer faces of the walls and having ontheir inner faces grooves adapted to receive the side edges of thebottom. In each prior instance known to me the side walls of a drawerare provided with integral hearing or sole edges ofthe same material asthe walls themselves. It .is customary to make the drawers of soft wood,because they are not exposed and largely for economical reasons; but thelower edges are apt to wear away by constant rubbing and friction due topulling the drawer back and forth, and the drawers ofsome kinds offurniture are apt to become misshapen and do not run true, even, andsmooth in their frames.

The object of the present invention is to provide an improvedconstruction by which I am able to use two kinds of material in itsmanufacture. In my improved drawer I employ sole-strips made separatefrom the sides and bottom and serving as the means for solidly andrigidly joining said bottom and the side walls together. These shoesalso afiord antifriction bearingssurfaces at the lower side edges of thedrawer, said surfaces being disposed at the side edges and sole or treadedge of the shoe, whereby the frictional engagement of the drawer at theside and bottom portion with the surrounding framework is minimized andthe drawer is made to run easily and freely in the article of furniture.50 In the manufacture of the drawer fiat side and bottom pieces of wood,each uniform in Serial N0.'70,3'74. (No model.)

thickness and of a low cheap grade of material, may be employed, whereasthe shoestrips are made separate from the walls and of a differentmaterial. These shoe-strips may be cut from stock which ordinarily maygo to waste in a furniture-factory, and as a comparatively small amountof material is required the cost of the material is not appreciablyincreased. In fact, my construction enables the drawers to bemanufactured at a material saving in time, labor, and ex-' pense. Thesole-strips are fashioned rapidly and accurately by suitable machineryto the required form in order to produce the side hearing andunder-tread surfaces, and said strips are also formed with grooves atright angles to each other in order to receive the bottom and sidewallsof the drawer, the severalparts being held firmly and solidly to- 7gether by the sole-strips.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination ofparts,as is hereinafter described,and definedin the appended claim.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings,forming a part ofthis specification, in which similar characters of reference indicatecorresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a plan view of a drawer and the 80 fiXed supports therefor,the drawer having the improved guideways thereon. Fig. 2 is a transversesectional view of the improvement applied to a drawer, takensubstantially on the line 2 2 in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a 8 detachedperspective view of a novel detail employed.

As shown, the drawer has a front wall 5,a rear wall 6, a bottom 7, andside walls 8,which parts when properly assembled comprise an 0 open-topdrawer thatis held to slide between fixed guide-strips 9, the latterjoining with a fixed base-piece 10, whereon the slidable drawer issupported.

The improvement consistsin the provision, 5 of two similar shoe-rails11, which are made in separate pieces from the rest-of the drawer, eachshoe-rail being formed as shown more clearly by. Figs. 2 and 3 of thedrawings.

In the preferred form of the shoes 11 two 103 like strips of wood orother suitable material are provided, which are flat on the upper sideand rabbeted on the lower side to reduce the width of theirbearing-surfaces, as represented at a in Figs. 2 and 3. The shoes 11each have a longitudinal groove ct formed in the upperside, and in saidgrooves the lower edges 1) b of the side walls 8 are embedded andsecured in any suitable manner. In the inner side edges of the shoes 11a longitudinal groove 1) is formed at right angles to the vertical planeof the groove in the upper side thereof, and in each of these lateralgrooves b a side edge portion of the bottom piece 7 is inserted and heldby any suitable means,

The ends of the side walls 8 8 are secured to the corresponding ends ofthe front and rear walls 5 and 6 by the usual dovetail formations (notshown) or by any other preferred means, which, together with the shoes11, completes the assembling of the several Walls of the drawer.

It will be seen that the respective shoes 11 project beyond each sidewall 8 sufficiently to have loose contact with the fixed walls or strips9 and are somewhat convexed on the edges 11*, which have engagement withsaid walls or strips, so that the surface of contact is reduced, thuspreventing excessive friction when the drawer is slid to open or closeit. Furthermore, the lower faces of the shoes 11 having reduced width,owing to the rabbets a, formed on said faces at the inner corners of theshoes, this construction correspondingly reduces the friction of thesebearing-faces on the base-piece 10.

In the improved construction represented by the drawings it will be seenthat the shoes 11 serve as the means for joining the lower edge portionsof the side walls with the side edge portions of the bottom of thedrawer, and said shoes also afford autifriction-beariugs to reduce thefrictional engagement between the drawer and its fixed supports.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent A furniture drawer consisting of parallel shoe-railseach having an upwardly-opening groove in its top side and aninwardly-opening groove on its inner side, the outer side of each railbeing provided with a cross-sectionally convex riding-face and the underside of the rail being cut away to form a narrow flat bearing-face, sidewalls secured in the upwardly-opening groove of the rails, and a bottomsecured at its respective edges in the grooves provided in the opposingfaces of said parallel rails.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM H. COYE.

Witnesses:

HERBERT LUCE, BERTHA A. SCOTT.

